From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives has resolved to investigate ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) and tertiary institutions over alleged employment racketeering and mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
It also resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to undertake the probe. The panel is expected to report back to the House within four weeks for further legislative actions.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Wole Oke in which he implored the parliament to investigate federal MDAs and tertiary institutions over alleged mismanagement of personnel recruitment, employment racketeering and gross mismanagement of the IPPIS.
Moving the motion, Oke said there was fraud in the system that had encouraged the recruitment of ghost workers with its effects on the finances of the government.
Oke, in his motion, said employment into MDAs and other parastatals of government is fraught with corruption, noting that public institutions hardly advertises vacancies.
The lawmaker added that in instances when MDAs advertise for vacancies, the available slots are commercialised and sold to the highest bidder. He called on the parliament to investigate the issues, with a view to putting a stop to them.
“The Federal Government has numerous MDAs, parastatals, institutions, etc and currently these public bodies represent the biggest employers of labour in Nigeria.
“The overhead of these public institutions constitutes a major component in the gudget of the Federal Government. Hence, employment in the federal public service has historically been a channel through which the Federal Government makes social interventions, stabilises society, reduces poverty and increases its access to all parts of Nigeria.
“This, therefore, underscores the essence and the importance of managing the process of recruitment and payment of civil servants and public officers.
“Notwithstanding this near-sacred role being played by the Federal Government, the process of recruiting and employment into the civil service has become one that is fraught with endemic corruption. Public institutions have since stopped the process of advertising for jobs and vacancies.
“Even in the few instances where adverts are published, the slots are already commercialised and available for the highest bidders. In other words, most public institutions now sell employment positions, notwithstanding the qualification of the applicant and the ability of the applicant to perform optimally on the job.”
“This poses a major risk and has indeed constituted itself into a channel for the underperformance of the public service. “Historically and specifically, since 1960 to 1990s, Nigeria boasted of one of the best crops of public servants in the world and service delivery was at the highest level of professionalism.
“However, this situation has since changed, largely because of the method of recruitment and the quality of recruitment into these public institutions, which is driven by fraud, abuse, corruption and pecuniary considerations.
“Despite the decay occasioned by the above, the Federal Government had tried to address other abuses within the system particularly, the menace of ghost workers, which necessitated the introduction of IPPIS to help fish out the large number of ghost workers.
“Despite the introduction of these reforms, most MDAs, in collusion with the office of the accountant general of the federation and the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning have devised methods to insert ghost workers and get payments through back-door channels.
“They have also crafted methods that are being used to circumvent the BVN technology. This state of affairs is costing the Federal Government, billions of naira monthly in salary payments to ghost workers and in illegal payments to several civil servants across cadres.
“As things stand now, the Federal Government is not getting value for money, rather it is losing both in quality, quantity and substance across recruitment and payment of personnel.
“Even more worrisome is that some staff members that have been legitimately employed, have not received salaries for months and years, despite the fact that they were recruited legally into the Federal Civil Service.”